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by reasonattlm 3679 days ago
Read a little deeper. This is a part of the investigations into the way in which p16 works in naked mole rats. If it isn't HWM-HA then it is something in its chain of relationships.

"When HMW-HA was removed, the cells became susceptible to tumors, confirming that the chemical did play a role in making naked mole rats cancer-proof. [The] team also identified the gene, named HAS2, responsible for making HMW-HA in the naked mole rat. Surprisingly, the naked mole rat gene was different from HAS2 in all other animals. In addition naked mole rats were very slow at recycling HMW-HA, which contributed to the accumulation of the chemical in the animals' tissues. [Previously researchers] showed that the p16 gene in naked mole rats stopped the proliferation of cells when too many of them crowd together. In their latest work, the two biologists identified HMW-HA as the chemical that activates the anti-cancer response of the p16 gene."

1 comments

I read the study, not just the article. (Perhaps you missed "elsewhere" in my statement above.)

Again, there are many steps before such a claim could be made, let alone before having a safe and effective "cure" using it. You can't just genetically engineer humans to manufacture and maintain large amounts of HWM-HA in their bloodstreams.